


And amongst it all, Peace

by LionessPearl3



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Spirits, spiritual journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 04:52:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LionessPearl3/pseuds/LionessPearl3
Summary: Katara never gets angery enought to trigger Aang release. They go home with a couple of fish, like any other day.Abord his ship, Prince Zuko heaves a sigh, His search of the southern seas has proved just as unfruitful as the all the rest. “Liutenant Jee. Inform my uncle that we will go to the eastern air temple, to search there once more.” he says. ”If anyone wants me for something, i will be in my quarters.”





	1. Lieutenant Jee's no good very bad day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fate Deferred](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14189820) by [catie_writes_things](https://archiveofourown.org/users/catie_writes_things/pseuds/catie_writes_things). 



> If you think this summary reminds you of anything, you would be right. There is another, older ATLA fic called 'Fate Deferred by catie_writes_things', with a summary much like mine.
> 
> I haven't read it, but the summary inspired me for this fic, and i feel that they are very different, given that mine centers mostly on Zuko in the immediate time after Aang should have appeared.

Zuko heaves a sigh. His search of the southern seas has proved just as unfruitful as the all the rest, and he feels tired and defeated. His anger and determination( _humiliation_ ) has helped him far in this search, but it has been three years. He is growing _tired._

”Lieutenant Jee. Inform my uncle that we will go to the eastern air temple, to search there once more.” he says. ”If anyone wants me for something, i will be in my quarters.”

\----------

Lieutenant Jee doesn’t know whether to hate the kid or pity him. On one hand, the prince is sour, often cruel or callous in his speech, drives the crew relentlessly with only an unreachable goal in mind and wouldn’t know logic or kindness if it bit him…

On the other hand, he can kind of understand. General Iroh has told the crew of how, exactly, Prince Zuko acquired his scar, and though he ordered the crew not to even mention it around the prince, he didn’t say anything about discussing it between themselves.

It is hard not to feel pity, when you know it was the boys own damn father that scarred him and banished him to this damned( _impossible_ ) quest.

His thoughts are abruptly cut off, when one of the younger crewmembers from the radar and weather station runs up to him, out of breath, babbling( _almost hysterically?_ ) and trying to tell him something.

”Stop ensign. Breathe.” he waited for him to do so. “Now. What did you want to tell me?”

The ensign took a deep breath and squeaked fearfully “the radars and barometer show signs of a rapidly forming hurricane, sir. We are in its direct path.” He looked pale and shaking slightly. Lieutenant Jee furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “What are you so scared of, ensign? You have been on this ship as long as I have, I know you have seen hurricanes and storms before.”

“That’s just it Sir. I have never seen anything as big as this. It seems to be a burgeoning level 3 sir, with a potential to get bigger.” He stammered.

Jee felt the blood drain from his face. A hurricane of that magnitude could rip their ship apart if they weren’t careful. He hurriedly ran to the shipwide alert button and pushed it, the ensign following him. He turned to him, and told him “Run to all decks and tell everyone you meet to meet in the mess hall and spread the word. I will go get General Iroh and Prince Zuko.”

The ensign ran off, and Jee grimaced. No doubt the prince would be less than pleased with this delay in their search.

\----------------

The storm was almost upon them. It was a universally known fact among sailors that you DIT NOT want to be near land in a storm of that size, so it had quickly been agreed that they would leave their coastal course and set course for more open waters.

They had decided, at the advice of General Iroh and one of the crewmembers, who had experience with sailing at the north pole, to sail to the triangle of open waters between the easternmost islands of the south pole, the southernmost islands of the earth kingdom, and the rounded tips of the southern continent.

Now the storm was upon them, and it was clear that it had, in fact, evolved to a level 4.

\----------------

Lieutenant Jee awoke to a world of pain. He blinked open his eyes, to find himself in the ships medical bay, and tried to recall what he had been doing that had landed him here, of all places.

It came back in pieces, slowly trickling into his head, and unfolding to create a very frightening picture.

When they had realized the true scope of the storm, the crew had been divided into 3 teams, one to man the deck, one to rest, and one to help in the engine rooms and in the medical bay. They had set up rotations so that they could last for hours in the storm, if it became necessary.

It had.

The storm had torn and pulled at their ship for most of the night, what had felt like endless hard hours of struggling, before the weather had seemed to lighten a little, at approximately 3 in the morning.

The crew on deck had relaxed a little too much, and they had barely had any warning, when the side of the ship had crashed into a iceberg that had gone unseen and undetected by their damaged radars.

Jee’s memories got a bit fuzzy after that. The crash had knocked him over into a sharp corner, but he only remembered darkness, and then catching a muddled glimpse of prince Zuko, and two other crewmembers that had been standing near him, go flying over the railings and onto another, smaller iceberg.

It seemed what had happened, was, that the storm had blown them off course, and uncomfortably close to the islands of the south pole, which mostly consisted of solid and not-so-solid icebergs. At the tail end of the storm, they had sailed directly into a small minefield of icebergs, that had been pushed farther out to sea by the storm.

General Iroh, and Hakin( _the crewmember that had experience from the north pole seas_ ) had navigated them safely through the icebergs and had then stopped the ship, to wait for the storm to completely pass, before sending out rescue parties, to see if anyone was still alive on the icebergs( _and to get prince zuko, most importantly_ ).

But all this was something he had been told later. Right now, he had only just woken up, and while he had been thinking and remembering( _what little he could_ ), one of the medical crew had sent for General Iroh, to update him on the state of the ship.

He had been given a thorough examination first, of course, and had been deemed healthy enough to leave, provided he watch his vision, and return immediately if he experienced any dizziness or shortness of breath.

\------------------

Iroh was beginning to think he was too old for this.

After he the meeting, where he had updated Lieutenant Jee on what had happened after his injury and the other officers had contributed with their own experiences, they had gone their separate ways.

Jee had gone to find out how their food and medical supplies had fared, the other officers to take inventory of the damage done to the ship, and he to find out how many crewmembers had been lost. It was a higher number than he would have liked, but lower than he had expected, after such a storm. It seemed Tui and La had decided to watch over them in the night.

He exhaled a shaky breath and was surprised to see that his hands were shaking faintly on the doorhandle.

Oh. Well. He supposed the shock had to set in sometime, and most of the necessary work was done now, after all.  

What remained was to rendezvous with Jee and the other officers, compare their findings, and figure out how to go about finding Zuko. That was what most important to him right now, and it was probably the only reason he hadn’t completely broken down with worry yet. He could do that when the search parties had been sent out.

He managed to pull himself together and went to do exactly that.

\--------------

The search parties had been sent out to the icebergs. Four small rescue boats, with crews of four each, 2 to carry anyone they found, 1 proficient firebender to sense for the inner fire that all firebenders had, and 1 medic for the inevitable injuries anyone alive would have.

Iroh watched them sail to the icebergs, and then turned, telling Jee that he had the helm, and that Iroh would be going to his cabin.

\---------------

Inside his cabin, Iroh collapsed onto his bed, and finally allowed himself to feel the frantic worry and panic that had been brewing since he first discovered that Zuko wasn’t on board anymore.

“Tui an La,” he prayed. “please don’t have let me come through this alive, only to find I have lost ( _another son_ ) my nephew. I don’t think I could take it. “

He fell asleep still praying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been informed that a glazier is a person that cuts glass, a glacier is something that only forms on land, and the word i should be using is iceberg :) so it is done ;) and thanks to 'BlueLion' for pointing it out ;)


	2. Zuko is weirded out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> very weirded out

Zuko awoke alone. That in itself was not abnormal, he did after all normally sleep alone, but his location was drastically different than normal.

He remembered being flung over the railing by the force of the ship hitting the iceberg, and he remembered trying to angle his body in the air, so that he would land on the iceberg and not in the freezing water. He had hit his head upon landing, and after that, everything had gone black.

This was definitely not an iceberg. For one, the iceberg had been moderately small, and full of crevasses and sharp ice. Where ever he was now, there was a vaguely blue fog all around him, he was laying down on a flat but smooth surface and he thought he could hear the sound of waves in the distance.

Determined to figure this out, he sat up, and instantly cringed, expecting his head to start pounding with pain. Only to stop in confusion, when he felt no pain at all.

That was weird. That was more than weird, that was impossible. He had felt his head impact the ice, and there was no way he had been asleep for long enough to heal that. It should have been a dull ache at the _very least_.

\------------------------

Zuko had decided to follow the sound of waves, thinking he might meet someone, or find a village or something, to ask where he was, and if anyone knew what had happened.

Except that hadn’t quite gone as planned, because now he found himself at the place the sound was coming from… and it was a pond… a koi pond even, with two koi swimming in it, seeming to circle each other constantly. _It was kind of mesmerizing…_

But no. Something was very wrong with this picture. The waves he had heard was undeniably coming from this pond, _but that was impossible_. There was no way a pond of that size could have made those sounds.

He had begun to pace, while trying to figure it out, but stopped abruptly now. One of the fishes had stopped its endless circling of the other, and was swimming at the surface of the pond, nearest to where he was standing.

He looked at it for a couple of seconds. It didn’t move. He slowly took a few steps to the side, parallel to the pond… _and it followed him_.

Okay.. that was weird, but nothing to freak out over( _he hoped_ ). He had had a niggling suspicion for a while now though. Uncle Iroh hadn’t talked about his journey in the spirit world much, but he had mentioned something about fog, and things that didn’t, couldn’t, make sense in the normal world.

He turned slowly around himself, looking over the formless blue fog he had come from, and then to the pond in front of him. A question was at the tip of his tongue, but before he could ask, he heard it.

 _“You are correct, little fire.”_ A feminine voice told him, and the fish nearest him began to glow.

**Author's Note:**

> a picture of the Avatar world, for reference : http://i.imgur.com/tsNtc.png  
> 


End file.
